Over the past few decades, there has been interest in chalcogenide materials for use in semiconductor devices, such as solar cells, photodetectors, or electroconductive electrodes. One such chalcogenide material is copper telluride (CuTe), which has been investigated for use as a cell material in conductive bridge random access memory (CBRAIVI) and phase change random access memory (PCRAM). One of the difficulties associated with using CuTe is the deposition of the material. CuTe is conventionally formed by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process or by codeposition of copper and tellurium onto a surface within an evacuated chamber. However, due to the equipment and targets needed, these techniques are expensive and take a considerable amount of time to become production worthy.
It is would be desirable to form chalcogenide materials, such as CuTe, in a less costly and less complex manner.